In doing so, he was struck from Funcom's "primary insider list", which allowed him to trade his stock without reporting it publicly on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE). Citing an anonymous insider "familiar with the situation," The Escapist claims that Aas then attempted to sell 1.5 million shares, though he only successfully sold around 650,000.

"His sale was discovered by another shareholder that subscribes to other shareholder lists, and when Trond's sales became public, Funcom's stock price tanked," the source said.

Aas is now under investigation by the OSE and the Norwegian Financial Services Authority, though he claims that he had no knowledge of The Secret World's disappointing sales when he left the role of CEO.

"Go back to the week [of launch] to look at the data that was available when the decision was made," he told E24.com. "There was no [one] at Funcom who [had] different insights than what was communicated [by the users]."

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